Books › Conscious
Conscious
144 pages
A brief, mind-bending plunge into the deepest mystery of the universe: the fact that you are experiencing it at all.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping out to look at the night sky and suddenly realizing you are part of it. It is a brisk, lucid exploration that takes the everyday miracle of your own awareness and turns it into a profound mystery. The prose is elegant and remarkably concise, stripping away academic jargon to invite you directly into the philosophical deep end. As you move through its pages, the mood shifts from intellectual curiosity to a quiet, awe-struck contemplation, gently dismantling your assumptions about free will, the self, and the nature of matter itself. It is perfect for curious, open-minded readers who want their reality tilted slightly on its axis, leaving them with a lingering sense of wonder about the simple act of being awake.
- Mood
- mind-expanding
- contemplative
- awe-inspiring
- Tone
- inquisitive
- accessible
- philosophical
- lucid
- open-minded
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the mystery of experience · the illusion of free will · panpsychism · the nature of reality · limits of human perception
- The writing
- Clear, elegant, and remarkably concise, distilling complex scientific and philosophical concepts into digestible, thought-provoking prose.
- The arc
- Begins with familiar assumptions about the self and gradually dismantles them, leaving the reader in a state of profound, lingering wonder.
- Who it's for
- Curious thinkers and armchair philosophers who want a brief but mind-bending dive into the biggest mysteries of human existence without getting bogged down in academic jargon.
Content notes
- existential themes
About the book
"What is consciousness? How does it arise? And why does it exist? We take our experience of being in the world for granted. But the very existence of consciousness raises profound questions: Why would any collection of matter in the universe be conscious? How are we able to think about this? And why should we? /In this wonderfully accessible book, Annaka Harris guides us through the evolving definitions, philosophies, and scientific findings that probe our limited understanding of consciousness. Where does it reside, and what gives rise to it? Could it be an illusion, or a universal property of all matter? As we try to understand consciousness, we must grapple with how to define it and, in the age of artificial intelligence, who or what might possess it. /Conscious offers lively and challenging arguments that alter our ideas about consciousness--allowing us to think freely about it for ourselves, if indeed we can." -- book jacket.
Description from Open Library.
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